The Minister of State for External Affairs, Gen (retd) V K Singh is said to have likened the burning of two Dalit children in Ballabhgarh to a dog being stoned by people – he said it wasn’t the Centre’s responsibility. The dog analogy is not under discussion here but the idea that it’s a small, 'localized' roadside issue is what makes the utterance more damaging. By reiterating the 'smallness' of things, and then dismissing it, the former Army Chief doesn't emerge as the best ambassador of the Centre’s approach to recent events. V K Singh has offered a clarification but his central argument that 'small' is somehow insignificant or too small a matter to involve the central government is what has been damning in the government’s response to many issues. [related-post] When speaking about a part of Haryana which is happy to flaunt its medievalism on caste and gender-related matters, the minister should have been much more mindful of his choice of words – especially in view of the incident being seen as a caste-dispute with simmering Dalit-Rajput tensions. In a still-fraught scenario, he should have thought about which caste group his comments would seem to be defending. It seems that enough homework on how small things can sometimes make or break a government, is not a part of the 'image' management pursuit of those in power. The story of a fruit-seller in Tunisia, who was burdened by crushing economic woes and self-immolated became the flash point for events in West Asia – the Arab Spring - which governments with much greater control over the discourse in their country, could not control. After the Congress was crushed and the Janata Party was in power, just six months after Indira Gandhi lost power, in August 1977, 11 Dalits were killed in a dispute with members of the Kurmi community over land, in Belchi, Barh district in Bihar. Gandhi went there and eventually reached only on an elephant's back. That ride on an elephant, a photograph of that moment, helped build the tempo for her speedy return in three years. A 'small' incident had a big recall. Small vegetables like the onion or the concerns of a small section of society can have an impact far larger than and beyond their size. The 'pulse' of the nation is already becoming fodder in the Bihar campaign now in full swing. Attempts to dismiss the price of pulses as a routine rise have had to be abandoned and the government appears to be in full damage limitation mode. Comments that mock and ridicule the 'smallness' of the opposition - “they can fit into a single bus” - pooh-poohing a small group of protesting writers as 'manufactured' dissent 'Congress-Left' inspired or simply dismissing them out of hand reflect a pattern of how what should have been a capacious and confident majority government, diminishes itself by its dismissive attitude. Governments stand the test of time once in five years, but public opinion is always being shaped. Opinions about Nehru being who he was, his daughter Indira having morphed into a ‘dictator’ from Durga, Rajiv Gandhi being the ‘moderniser’, Atal the one who 'believed in building consensus', Lalu as ‘the real challenger to the BJP-led parties’ or Nitish as the ‘meticulous governance-driven man’ – all of these took shape over time in the public mind. Nothing works better in India than leaders reaching out to those outside their core support group and nothing works as badly as those who, once given immense power, refuse to be seen to reach out or risk walking across the aisle. Just before elections, video raths, PR blitzes, helicopter firepower or posters and clever slogans go only that far. What may be crucial is an aggregation of things small things that end up making a big difference.
